The present invention relates to a quality control apparatus for a manufactured food product. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus for grading the quality of a manufactured food product.
Food products such as baked goods are manufactured in large qualities and packaged for sale. Product consistency is important for consumer confidence and sale. For example, for a baked good such as bread, product size, shape, cell structure and color are product attributes which can vary depending upon manufacturing conditions. It is desirable to grade product attributes against product standards for quality control testing. Variations in test procedures for grading product attributes can provide inconsistent and unreliable results. Periodic product testing monitors continued product compliance. Complex testing procedures and processes which require many testing devices increases testing complexity and deters periodic compliance testing. The present invention addresses these and problems for measuring product conformance.
The present invention relates to a grading template for measuring food product attributes for quality control and compliance. The template supports scales for measuring product attributes and has application for measuring such attributes as size, shape, color and cell structure for baked bread. The template supports multiple scales to provide a single device for grading product conformance.